


Woven in Stone

by KRiley



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Headcanon, Mentions of Death, Mentions of Violence, Spoilers for C1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-04 23:40:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20479397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KRiley/pseuds/KRiley
Summary: Cassandra does not grow to be very old, but here is what she did get.





	Woven in Stone

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I'm sort of ragtag catching up on both Campaign 1 & 2. There might be things about Cassandra's backstory I missed/misunderstood. See notes at the bottom for some of my thoughts. Cassandra intrigued me from the start as a character and *SPOILERS* after Matt had the 'last of the de Rolo's' line in the one-shot, this just sorta happened. Enjoy!

Cassandra does not get to grow very old. But she does get to heal. 

She told her brother she didn't remember much of her time in the tower, right before Vox Machina took on a quasigod and defeated it. She was lying. She remembers some. Maybe it was the years spend under the Briarwood's torture that made her more resistant to that particular effect of the spell, maybe it was because she died while under its influence, but Cassandra remembers walking through Whitestone's halls, darkness, and then standing there, strapped into an unfamiliar armour, screaming murder without ever making a sound. She could feel the panic rise as she struggled against her own unresponsive muscles. Then, suddenly, an arrow (because it's always got to be an arrow doesn't it?) embeds itself into her chest, immediately another one follows it. She feels the pain. Or she thinks she did. She is unsure whether it was the new pain, or the memory of her younger self crumpling to the ground and watching her brother run away from her. She dies. She doesn't remember being dead, but she remembers the edges of her vision blurring, feathery tendrils creeping up. The familiar feeling of choking on the bitter taste of iron, the memory of bleeding out, now crossing over from her past into present. She wakes with a start, unable to speak or do much more than sliver her eyes open and see the shock of her brother's white hair leaning over her, a tremulous breath escaping him. She hears voices, wants to ask, object, but before she can she is grabbed in a strong hold around her waist, a warm cradle. A flash of reality bends around her and suddenly they're not in the dark cold tower anymore. She wakes up in Emon. Gilmore introduces himself stiltedly, explaining what had happened. Kaylie had woken before her and taken off. He'd felt unable to stop her, but she had needed her space. All he'd asked was that she contact her father. The gnome hadn't made the promise, but took off, self-assuredly. 

Gilmore told her about the fight. He'd received word that Vox Machina had reigned victorious. Vecna, the Briarwoods' patron, the God responsible for the annihilation of her family, had taken her mind from her but with a thought, turned her into a mindless puppet. That at least had taken the Briarwoods years of torture and manipulation, she thought to herself bitterly. Gilmore must see something in her gaze, because they end up talking. By the end of the day they find her someone to transport her to Whitestone and she leaves with a promise to keep in contact. She makes a good friend in Gilmore, maybe her first outside of Whitestone, and she is a better person, a happier person, for knowing him, for the time she gets to.

She does not get to grow old. But then neither did most of her family, so she figures she’s at least sticking to a trend. 

When Vox Machina freed her, and she had watched Delilah Briarwood's body disintegrate in acid before her brother's strange creation joined it, she looked Percival in the eye before slapping him across the face. Her teenage self got some satisfaction from that, she'll admit. It was strangely reassuring her Percy, the one she knew was still in there. He hadn't changed that much if his go to insult was still that she was never Mother's favourite. I know, she remembers thinking, the Twins were Mom's favourite. She had been Julius'. Her oldest brother had doted on her. Where she and Percy had shared a similar view of Whitestone, and their position, making them more partners in crime and dissent, her oldest brother had watched out for her like a guardian. Treating scraped knees and soothing fights, Julian had taken care of her. She tries to remember him like that, rather than the rotting corpse she had been forced to watch swing from the branches of the Sun Tree. 

She does not grow old, in the grand scheme of things, but she outlives even her oldest sibling by well over a decade.

She dies protecting her family. Vesper, her niece, now practically an adult herself, was travelling with her. She tells her to run, her parents aren't far, and Cassandra turns to face their attackers with a disdainful sneer. New money. It's what Percy and her had taken to calling those who thought they could attack the de Rolo's or Whitestone. Their own codeword for those desperate to make themselves a legacy because they had none, and always with such petty dramatics. She whips out her trusted rapier, swings it up to her face in a mockery of a classic fencing greeting, and moves in. One of her opponents has a gun, a cheap knock off that isn't really worth carrying the same name as her brother's, but it fires a bullet into her chest. (Her chest, always her Pelor damned chest.) She responds to the offending attack by running her own weapon through his throat. 

She falls to her knees, blade still clutched in her hand, blood smearing across her teeth as she collapses with a near manic grin. She could at least appreciate the sense of poetry her death brought. 

She had always secretly thought to herself that her first death was the day she was taken by the Briarwoods. They had never confirmed if the arrow that day had actually killed her, but at the very least the person she had been had died that day. Then, in the tower, going wild with panic but unable to move, vision blinking out for what seemed only a moment before a warmth spreading in her chest had yanked her back to this plane of existance.

Third time's the charm she supposes. 

She stares up at the bright blue sky. The cold fresh air that usually made her both relish and loath living this far up north seemed to be stealing her breath and warmth away with each exhale. The edges of her vision begin to blur in darkness, while the middle seemed to slowly white out, like a sudden onset snowstorm. As she focuses on the last dregs of her conscious vision, she thinks she sees feathers. Black feathers, and... A raven... Or is it just a Mask? She doesn't get a chance to make it out before her eyes slip closed, but she feels a warmth like a cloak settle over her body, and she drifts. 

The warmth brings light behind her closed eyelids. Light and warmth, even though she feels as if she's lost her coat somewhere and she distinctly seems to recalls darkness setting in. Impossible, Whitestone was never this warm. Not that she remembers at least… Right? Cassandra opens her eyes to notify whomever may be in her proximity of this mistake, only to be greeted by the warm gaze of her brother. 

Tears spring to her eyes and the next thing she knows Julius has pulled her up into his arms, carding a hand through her loosened hair. Come, he seems to say, without any words spoken, we've been waiting for you. Cassandra feels younger, younger again than all her other siblings, as her big brother takes her by the hand and leads her over to where she can just see the twins chasing each other up the grassy sun-drenched hill, Whitney pushing Oliver aside with a playful jab. Cassandra picks up her speed. Finally, she feels alive.

**Author's Note:**

> So despite how this may seem, i do really like Cassandra and especially her potential as a tragic charcter. Being so manipulated from such a young age by people so thoroughly evil opens up a lot of potential. I thought it'd be fun to add on to Percival's guilt complex off screen by having her die by gun, you know, cuz it felt in character. I actually watched c1ep113 multiple times to figure out which of the Twins kills who, and far as I gathered it is actually Vex that takes out Cassandra, which i wanted to adress but couldn't really naturally work into the story as is. I might write that interaction later. Also, what with Matt mentioning either in the aftershow or the talks episode (i don't remember exactly) that in order to scare the people of Whitestone into complacency, the Briarwoods hung the de Rolo's from the Sun Tree. I imagine that, if they did, and they had Cassandra captured, what better way to break the spirit of a teenager than make her witness to such attrocity. I have othe thoughts abput cassandra's relationship with her siblings, which seven is a lot, and they were of such varrying ages, i thought that could be interesting as well. On a slightly bittersweet note, i think I'd love the interactions between Gilmore and Cassandra. Her, having her youth stolen from her, and Gilmore maybe trying to get some p,ayfulness back into her life with silly magic tricks or little cute trinkets. The inevitable sadness when Cassandra, who may have become a little sister to him in some ways as well, dies early. And i kinda fell in love with the idea of sort of Angel of Death Vax. Now we knoe Vax in the beyond is no longer the Vax we know, i like the. Idea of him picking up everyone from the VM family, waiting until, eventually, finally, he gets too bring Keyleth with him and they all meet again on another plane. 
> 
> Let me know what you think, still fairly new to CR so hope you enjoyed despite the possible mistakes 😊


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